Intel Core Challenge by IO preview

The 3rd Generation Intel Core Challenge by Inferno Online has almost completed its teamlist and is taking place in the Swedish capital on Saturday. This is the preview of teams for the event.

SK Gaming, fnatic, ESC Gaming and WinFakt were initially invited directly to the event, while Wikipediots and eestralis qualified from the online qualifiers. Hellslayers made their way in from the first LAN qualifier, while icsu featuring Tommy "Potti" Ingemarsson made it in from the second one.

Unlike originally announced, the tournament will feature a single elimination best-of-three bracket for the eight teams:

10:00	fnatic	vs. icsu	Bo3
10:00	WinFakt	vs. Wikipediots	Bo3
13:30	ESC Gaming	vs. Hellslayers	Bo3
13:30	SK Gaming	vs. eestralis	Bo3

The tournament will be entirely finished in one day with no matches overlapping with one another after the group stage, here is the full schedule after the quarter-finals:

16:30	Semi-final #1	Bo3
19:30	Semi-final #2	Bo3
22:30	Grand final	Bo3

As the entire $10,000 prize purse will go to the winning team, there is no need to play a third place decider. What can you expect from all the teams at this tournament? Continue reading to find out.

SK Gaming(Delpan, f0rest, face, GeT_RiGhT, RobbaN)

After multiple weak showings with Martin "trace" Heldt on the team, SK Gaming finally came to their senses and re-recruited Marcus "Delpan" Larsson. While Heldt is certainly more consistent and a more well-rounded player overall, for this team Larsson simply fits better because of his aggressiveness and his capabilities with the big green. He claims to be motivated once again and his play in recent matches backs up his words, as he's been playing well and hitting important shots for his team. As far as maps go, Larsson certainly improves the team on all of the five maps played on Saturday, except de_nuke. However, it was always a strong map for them even with his shortcomings, so fans should not be overly worried. What might be of some concern to fans of SK however, is that Christopher "GeT_RiGhT" Alesund has seemingly put in much more hours into CS:GO as of late than CS 1.6 and Patrik "f0rest" Lindberg has also been playing the wrong version of CS. Whether or not they will be in shape this weekend remains to be seen.

First round will pair SK Gaming up with the Finnish mixteam eestralis. No matter how you look at it, that matchup will be over fairly quickly and the Swedes will proceed to face their kryptonite, ESC Gaming. Now, if SK holds a psychological edge over fnatic, they suffer from a much bigger problem when facing the Poles. They always have close matches with them and can clearly match up to Filip "neo" Kubski & co just fine, but something seems to be missing more often than not and Alesund's team usually comes up short. I wish I had better things to predict for SK fans, but with the Poles putting in tons of practice as usual and much more so than SK who have recently gone through a roster change, I don't see SK Gaming coming out on top unless their star players play well enough to take down ESC themselves. 

In terms of maps I think SK Gaming will most likely remove de_tuscan in every match up unless they've had even more struggles on de_inferno lately. They will hope to play de_nuke, de_train and de_dust2 in all of their series but their opponents should remove at least one of them if they're smart, which would make the Swedes' chances significantly worse. SK is clearly the best team here on de_forge and de_mirage so removing them from the map pool actually makes map selection slightly harder for them, but luckily for them they're fairly well rounded regardless.

Prediction: 3-4th

f0rest is hoping to return to his winning ways near his home 

fnatic (Friis, Gux, karrigan, moddii, Xizt)

fnatic has looked impressive since they recruited Finn "karrigan" Andersen to replace the retired Patrik "cArn" Sättermon. It's still too early to tell whether they will breach into the same group of teams as SK Gaming, ESC Gaming and Natus Vincere, and they certainly need a top two placing on Saturday to stay in the conversation (although it wouldn't really mean that much, but more on that later), but so far things are looking good in the black and orange camp. The team played well against SK Gaming at the Stockholm qualifier for Swedish Championship, but like so many times before in the past 18 months, fell short. More recently online, Rasmus "Gux" Ståhl was gone for a week while his team used Tommy "tacky" Mosgaard as a stand-in and claimed an easy win over Moscow Five without their star player Mihail "Dosia" Stolyarov. After that, they struggled against Anexis with Ståhl back in the lineup but seeing as the matches were online, they hardly hold the same weight as previous events.

Looking at the bracket, fnatic will face a team coming from the LAN qualifier on the opening round, and regardless of how deep the talent pool in Sweden is right after the very top of Counter-Strike, that should be an easy 2-0 win for fnatic. Due to apparently receiving the highest seed for this event, fnatic are actually favorites to make the finals as well, as their semi-final opponent will be either WinFakt or eSrael. While WinFakt showed signs of brilliance in Copenhagen, it's been a month since then and they have added a new player for this event, and eSrael simply haven't proven what they are capable of yet, which makes fnatic a favorite over either team. I don't think they can beat SK Gaming or ESC Gaming in the grand finals though, as to me both still seem stronger overall, although they certainly have a shot.

As far as maps go, de_dust2 was clearly the new fnatic lineup's strongest map in Copenhagen and they also scored wins on de_train and de_nuke. Assuming their opponents in Stockholm remove de_dust2, their task will be significantly harder and we will get to see how well they have prepared on the other maps. Regardless, they should be able to make finals. Lastly, what I was talking about earlier, is that because they are expected to make the grand final due to seeding, it actually won't be that impressive unless they win and take home the $10,000 prize.

Prediction: 2nd

All eyes on Xizt who is looking to replicate fnatic's success from Copenhagen Games 

ESC Gaming(kuben, Loord, neo, pasha, TaZ)

ESC Gaming are in an odd position coming into this tournament, having won the two previous majors but completely flunked Copenhagen Games, placing 9-12th in the end. They had a nice lead against both fnatic and Anexis in the matches they ended up losing and looked poised to make the grand finals again after WinFakt's upsets, but were unable to beat the newly formed fnatic first on their strong map de_dust2, and then de_mirage. Online their play has been the usual you can expect from the Poles - inconsistent. They took a beating from ALTERNATE and scored a close win over the Frenchmen of E2G, hardly a resume to be proud of. From what I've seen and heard they are possibly the most prepared team coming into this tournament which would make sense since they had the most disappointing last showing out of the teams in attendance.

In the opening round they will face Swedish Hellslayers, a team that won Thursday's LAN qualifier at Inferno Online. I can't say I know anything about them and I fully expect the Poles to come out with a fairly easy win. It would actually be better for them if the Swedes shot back a little, as they could surely use some warmup heading into their semi-final against SK Gaming. ESC is 5-1 in playoff matches against SK with the current rosters (post-2011) and have often come out with big wins in extremely close series, something that is surely imprinted in SK's minds. While I don't think the advantage is big especially with Marcus "Delpan" Larsson just recently being re-added to SK, I think ESC are favorites in the matchup especially after hearing Christopher "GeT_RiGhT" Alesund say their preparation hasn't been great. I also think ESC is better than fnatic, WinFakt or eSrael from the other side of the bracket (regardless of the result at Copenhagen Games) so I predict ESC Gaming to win another championship on Saturday.

While the Poles are eager to play de_mirage any chance they get and actually managed to take down Na`Vi in the IEM6 World Championship grand finals on it, they aren't a particularly strong team on the map and are better off with the five map rotation. They will likely remove de_inferno in every matchup, which gives them three maps they're very strong on and de_tuscan which is always somewhat of a questionmark for Filip "neo" Kubski's squad. Luckily for them, SK Gaming has never been strong on de_tuscan either which should give them a pass in the semi-final, and after that I think the fact they're a more well-rounded team than any of the other grand finals candidates should be enough for them to clinch the title, although a de_dust2 rematch against fnatic could be tough.

Prediction: 1st

TaZ has been in great shape since the end of 2011 

WinFakt (allu, aslak, BASiC, H^N, Metaphor)

WinFakt had a great showing at Copenhagen Games where they managed to take down Natus Vincere and SK Gaming in the upper bracket before falling short against the new fnatic lineup and then Natus Vincere in the consolidation final. Since then the team has only played two official matches in fnatic PLAY league, both with Janne "Metaphor" Halinen formerly of MoD-eSport. Unfortunately neither offers too much insight as the first one was de_mirage which isn't played at Stockholm E-Sports Arena on Saturday and the second one saw Moscow Five using their odd rushing play style on de_inferno that no other team is likely to copy.

I think WinFakt are slight favorites over eSrael in the opening round for a couple of reasons, although I could easily see either team winning. Assuming WinFakt takes down the Danes, they will have to face fnatic, the team who took them down at their finest in Copenhagen, again. While I don't necessarily think fnatic is much better than WinFakt right now, I think Kimmo "BASiC" Fagerholm's fragging has been suffering enough from being the in-game leader that the team is relying on Timi "aslak" Verkkoperä a little too much if they wish to take down any of the top teams. Should Verkkoperä play like he did in Copenhagen and some of his teammates step up as well though, they could take down fnatic, but I don't think it is very likely to happen. For a possible grand final setting, I think if they were to take down fnatic they would actually have a reasonable chance vs ESC or SK as well, but the semi-final will be tough.

Map wise WinFakt isn't likely to play de_dust2 at all which means they will likely face eSrael on de_tuscan which is a strong map for both teams, as well as de_train. Last map will come down to the Danes' choice, but seeing as the Finns have traditionally been stronger on de_nuke, they might have to play de_inferno here as well. At Copenhagen Games they lost de_train and de_nuke versus fnatic so they will have to improve on their showing if they wish to make it past semi-finals. As well as SK, WinFakt is the other team who were actually legitimately good enough on de_forge and de_mirage that not including them in the map pool actually makes their chances worse.

Prediction: 3-4th

This weekend will be Metaphor's shot at the big time 

eSrael (ArcadioN, coloN, trace, turkizh, Xyp9x)

Morten "coloN" Johansen has turned a lot of heads in the past months as he has put up one solid performance after another following the cheating debacle in ClanBase Nations Cup. Johansen topped stats for Copenhagen Games and has since then produced an impressive amount of highlight clips from online matches. As Xapso the team didn't really do much at Copenhagen Games against good teams so it's hard to judge them too much yet so in a way this event will actually give us a much better idea of how good Timm "ArcadioN" Henriksen's new project actually is. The addition of Martin "trace" Heldt has surely improved the team as they now have a very experienced player who is also one of the most consistent performers among the elite of Counter-Strike. Since then, they have taken down Lemondogs online despite of Heldt having massive ping issues throughout the match, but unfortunately their match against ESC was postponed as it would have been a good indication of their current form.

I honestly think the opening match against WinFakt could go either way, but I think eSrael is better prepared due to having Henriksen at the helm. If Johansen's performance doesn't suffer from switching to an LCD monitor, Heldt plays as usual and the rest of the team doesn't make major mistakes, eSrael are even a candidate to making the grand finals. However, currently based on the past month I have to give WinFakt a slight edge over the Danes, even with Heldt's addition as we do not know how the team will perform in a tournament environment yet. Should WinFakt make mistakes though, the Danes will pick up a win and face fnatic who I believe they match up against pretty well, seeing as the team in black and orange will be playing very individually based style against Henriksen's coordinated attacks. If their players are all playing well and they beat WinFakt, assuming they don't make any major mistakes I think they can take down fnatic as well. I doubt such a new team can win three close best-of-three series in a row though, so I wouldn't hold my breath on the $10,000 just yet. Could easily jump up from 5-8th to 2nd.

eSrael seems to be the least dependant of all the teams here on any single map, although the amount of de_mirage they played at Copenhagen Games (as well as one de_forge) certainly suggests they would have preferred to keep them in as well. Without having seen them play much, I would assume de_tuscan and de_inferno will be some of their stronger maps along with de_train. I'm not sure how Henriksen and Heldt feel about de_dust2 given the fact mTw never played it and de_nuke could either be a very good map for the team based on mTw, or a weaker one due to coloN being unable to AWP, but I can't say for sure without seeing them play it.

Prediction: 5-8th

Can coloN continue to amaze on LCD monitors? 

Who do you think will advance from the group stage, and eventually take home the $10,000 prize?

HLTV.org will be on-site at Inferno Online Stockholm and its Stockholm E-sports Arena facility to provide you with full coverage of 3rd Generation Intel Core Challenge by Inferno Online.

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